Working Nine to Five
by odmonkey
Summary: AU Good morning, Uchiha & Son legal firm, Haruno speaking, how may I be of assistance?
1. Chapter 1

Alright ya'll, new idea here! I think you can guess by the end of the first section what the pairing will be.

x

Haruno Sakura loved working at Uchiha & Son law firm as the receptionist to the prodigial lawyer Uchiha Itachi. Despite the fact her employer barely was very reserved outside of a courtroom she felt like she made a difference to his work-load and that he was grateful she was there. It was Uchiha senior who had given her the job, seeing her natural organisational skills and her indifference to being cold-shouldered (something that was certainly needed around the young lawyer) and not a moment went by where she didn't thank him for this chance.

Sakura was studying law herself after all and the opportunity to get a close up view of what she would be doing was too good to be true. Not only that but Itachi was considered to be the best lawyer in the whole of Japan and it took all of her self-control not to pester him for details of every case he worked on. Her job consisted of taking his calls, arranging appointments and making sure all the documents were filed correctly. Sakura prided herself in doing the best work she could and was always cheerful around the rather stern young man, bringing him coffee and the occasional present of dango, his secret favourite.

Itachi, in truth, was glad of her presence, she was a capable assisstant and rarely made any mistakes, plus she offset his rather harsh manner that tended to put clients on edge. After five minutes sitting chatting with the pretty young woman clients were usually relaxed and more willing to be helpful. In return for her good work he often left his door slightly ajar so she could listen in on his meetings and turned a blind-eye to the fact she often read through files she was only meant to be filing.

The money was good and she genuinely liked Itachi but the best parts of the whole job were Itachi's friends. The infamous business man Hoshigaki Kisame often dropped by for legal advice from his long-term friend and Sakura relished the good-natured arguments they had. He had a dry wit that often left Sakura laughing out loud as they traded barbs and he had a wicked sense of gossip meaning that the two of them were often caught up in who-had-done-what by Itachi as Kisame had been meant to come into his office at least ten minute before. Kisame genuinely liked the pink-haired girl and often spoke of how good an asset she would be to Itachi's firm, and also how lucky Itachi was to have such a beauty for a receptionist with an accompanying wink causing the stoic Uchiha to laugh slightly and shake his head.

Sometimes Kisame would bring with him his fellow business man Kakuzu and although he was less prone to idle chat he had given her very sound advice on managing her finances and had complemented her on her ability to organise, and putting up with Itachi, of whom he wasn't terribly fond.

Although Zetsu, the go between for Itachi's most high-profile and wealthy clients Pein and Konan, scared Sakura slightly with his commanding frame and scratchy voice that would occasionally change tone completely as if it were a different person speaking he always had the most interesting stories to tell, he simply knew so many people. Sakura could sit and listen to his stories for hours and he seemed to enjoy having someone to impart all his tales to. Sakura nearly always told them all straight to Kisame and so Zetsu was really their fountain of gossip.

Then there were two of Itachi's friends from school, the now internationally acclaimed artists Sasori and Deidara, more often than not accompanied by their workshop assisstant Tobi. Sakura absolutely adored Tobi, his childlike wonder and interest at everything she said couldn't help but endear him to her, not to mention the fact that he often said the wrong thing causing Deidara to explode at him in a way that would leave her stomach hurting from laughing. While Sasori was a very calm person and she enjoyed discussing cultural things with him she always felt more drawn to the vibrant sculpturist.

He was moody, happy one minute and withdrawn the next, petulant when he felt he was being ignored or slighted, much like her. Not that she would admit it but she always looked forward to his smiles which lit his whole face and which meant she couldn't stop herself smiling either. It was just a fact that he was devastatingly handsome, Itachi and his friends were, but she felt like she saw it in him more. Deidara enjoyed going to see Itachi because more often than not it meant he would see his pretty receptionist. She was very artistic, her colouring, her face shape and the way she smiled. On top of that he could actually have a discussion with her that didn't lead to arguing about art as it did with Sasori, or bodily harm as it did with Tobi. He often wondered whether he would get up the courage to ask her to model for a sculpture for him, and if she did, if he would live down the ribbing he was sure to get from Kisame in particular.

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"Oh and Sakura-san could you get me the file on last Friday's case? I have some amendments to make."

"Of course Itachi-san, it's nearly midday, remember you're having lunch with Hidan-san at one."

"Yes, thank you Sakura-san, who has an appointment this afternoon?"

"Hatake-san is booked in at half-two for a meeting about his estate, and ... Inuzuka-san at four regarding the custody of her nephew. Oh and Kisame-san called to say that you and him are 'going to hit the bar' tonight, I imagine with Sasori-san and Deidara-san. He's coming to get you at six."

"Thank you Sakura-san, what are my excuses if I do not wish to 'hit the bar'?"

"I think you should go Itachi-san, you've been working awfully hard recently, but it can be your parent's anniversary tonight, you haven't used that one yet."

"Excellent, thank you Sakura-san."

"No problem Itachi-san."

Sakura smiled to herself as she searched out the file for the Mitarashi case, Itachi had been astounding at the defence, exposing every flaw the accuser had to offer. She could only hope to be as good as him, he had natural talent, but at least she was learning from a master. As Itachi was on the phone she merely placed the file on his desk with a smile and went back to her desk. There was nothing pressing happening right now, she had already sorted out all of today's work, so she logged into her email.

One from Naruto-kun describing all the amazing places he was seeing on his world tour, with attached photos of him and Sasuke standing infront of the great monuments of the current country. Although she was terribly jealous that they were having so much fun, she felt a gap year wasn't her style and besides she wouldn't be in such a good position as she was now. She missed her two best friends dearly but as long as they were safe she knew they were doing what was best for them. After sending him a lengthy email filled with gossip and what she was up to, including a warning from Itachi to Sasuke to be careful she moved back to her inbox.

One from Ino describing the latest fashions from her mentor's workshop; one from Chouji telling her about his new restaurant; one from Neji showing her how he, Lee and Ten-Ten were faring in their training for the coming Olympics; one from Shikamaru going on and on about how troublesome it was living in Suna as a government aid, and how irritating Gaara and Kankuro were, obviously though Temari came under no bad light; one from Hinata asking her advice on how to stop Kiba and Shino antagonising each other so that they could get their business off the ground; and finally one from her surrogate mother Tsunade entreating her not to work so hard and to swing by the hospital and visit more, the offer of sake hanging in the air.

The ringing phone distracted her from her replies;

"Good morning, Uchiha & Son legal firm, Haruno speaking, how may I be of assistance? Aha ... Thursday ... I'm afraid the only time Itachi-san has free on that day is eleven o'clock, would that be suitable? Excellent and the name please? Morino? Thank you, see you on Thursday Morino-san."

Itachi slid out of his office ten minutes later for his dinner with Hidan, Sakura informed him of his new appointment and admonished him to eat something healthy, with Itachi leaving his work with a slight smile, despite the fact he was having dinner with the foul-mouthed priest.

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Sakura spent a lazy afternoon reading her course books and occasionally answering the phone. She had enjoyed seeing Hatake Kakashi again, for he'd been one of her high-school teachers and it was nice to able to show him how well she had progressed. Of course he was still reading his dirty novels but as he pointed out, he didn't need to progress. Inuzuka-san was a pleasant enough woman but Sakura felt sorry for Kiba, it must have been hard living in the middle of a family fued, probably why he worked so hard at getting his business to float. She really must pass on his number to Kisame for advice.

Soon it was half five and Sakura was just getting ready to leave as she popped her head round the door of Itachi's office to ask if he needed anything done before she left. He glanced up at her and shook his head but as she was saying her goodbyes he interrupted her and asked if she would like to come to the bar with him and his friends. Sakura had been shocked (happy but shocked) and asked if she would be welcome.

"Sakura-san, it would be foolish for my friends and I not to call you a friend also. I think Kisame will be delighted he has someone new to tell the stories we've all heard before."

"Well, if I'm not going to get in the way..."

"Of course you won't get in the way!" Kisame's voice boomed from the doorway.

"After all day in this place you could do with a drink, yeah." Deidara gave her a lopsided grin from under the giant businessman's arm.

"Tobi would love to spend an evening with Sakura-san!" Tobi squeezed in between them causing Deidara to huff in annoyance.

Sasori merely smiled over Tobi's head and Sakura grinned, grabbing her coat she left with the men who she had come to regard as friends.

x

Good idea? Bad idea? Feedback would be nice, just so I know if this premise interests anyone. University means updates will be infrequent though. R/R!


	2. Chapter 2

I tried about six different bar scenarios but all them were terrible, so I fell back on trusty flashbacks.

x

Sakura grimaced as she looked at herself in the mirror the next morning, it was not a pretty sight. Her hair a complete mess, tangled and smelling of booze and make-up all over the place. She groaned slightly as she felt the pain throbbing in her temples and her stomach rise slightly in protest at the amount of alcohol she'd consumed the night before. Making a mental note to blame this all on Itachi for inviting her and Kisame for encouraging her to down her drinks she fell back onto the bed and closed her eyes. Thank God it was Saturday, and the only thing she had to look over was some course notes.

Unfortunately as she closed her eyes flashing from the night before came back to her. Kisame singing, his deep bass voice echoing through the streets. Itachi laughing out loud, to the surprise of everyone. Sasori chatting up a woman at the bar saying she could be his perfect model. And ... Oh dear, herself dancing on the table with Tobi. Sakura winced, she would never live that down, especially as she remembered falling off the table into the arms of the blond artist. She couldn't help but smile slightly as she remembered Deidara's grinning face and the way he held her a bit closer then he needed to, not putting her down for ages.

Sakura flushed as that came back to her. There was no doubt the artist was one of the most attractive men she had ever seen, possibly even over Itachi. However it was silly to get a crush on someone who was so out of her league, he was internationally renowned, a couple of years older and probably had women vying for his attention whenever he went. Still, she couldn't get the feeling of Deidara holding her out of her mind, and drifted off to sleep with a slight smile and blush.

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Itachi rubbed his temples and cast a slightly irritated glance at his closest friend crashed out on his couch. Why did he let Kisame drag him into nights out like this? They always had too much to drink, embarrassed themselves and woke up feeling like death. It was exactly how they'd acted at school and Itachi was beginning to feel he was too old for it now.

Snorting at his behaviour the previous night he booted up his laptop. He had been worried that Sakura would have felt awkward but she fitted in right away. She'd had an awful lot to drink though and he was thinking of giving her a phone to check she was alright as she didn't seem like the drinking type. Then again, she'd been mostly raised by in the infamous boozer Tsunade-hime so maybe she wasn't as bad as he'd thought.

He thought Deidara had been acting oddly around her though, keeping his eyes on her more than anything else, buying her drinks and pouting when Tobi got between them. Not to mention the incident where she'd fallen off the table and he's caught her, both smiling at each other and the way he hadn't put her down for a long time.

His head was pounding (not that he'd admit it) and thinking about his friend's actions was just making it worse, so, making a mental note to look into it later he checked his email for the awaited reply from his little brother. Itachi couldn't understand how Naruto had managed to convince Sasuke to go on that journey, his brother was even more career driven than he was. However he seemed to be having a good time in the far-flung places in the world. As far as he understood it Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura had been close friends at school but he got the feeling that she hadn't been invited on this trip. He felt slightly sorry for her, it must be hard being left out, but at the same time it meant that he and his friends got the pleasure of her company and she got a head-start in the business world. From the way Sasuke never mentioned her in connection with the firm he also got the feeling she hadn't told him about her work. He could understand that, Sasuke would make a good lawyer but not an excellent one unlike Sakura, and would feel even more challenged by her if he knew she was getting a lengthy head-start on him.

Sasuke was doing fine, attached pictures of the latest monuments and the occasional picture of Naruto doing something stupid that he was making a back-up of for later blackmail. He didn't mention Sakura once although he did ask how everything was going with the firm. Itachi decided just to say all was running smoothly and deciding to omit the employment of his friend until she told him herself.

Turning around as Kisame slid off the couch onto the floor with a bang followed by a low death groan, Itachi smirked to himself. Then again, these nights out always left him with lots of hilarious memories. Kisame almost having a bucket of water thrown over him for singing in the streets, Sasori avoiding the purse being swung at his face by the woman he was chatting up, Sakura and Tobi doing a make-shift jive on the table until Sakura over-balanced with a whoop.

Chucking to himself lightly he went into the kitchen to get Kisame some alkaseltzer.

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Sasori smiled as he watched his fellow artist wander around their attic studio. One minute Deidara would be intensely concentrated on a latest work, the next he was standing at the window staring into space. This was reasonably normal behaviour for him, he found it incredibly hard to stay in one place or do just one thing when he wasn't inspired, and this morning he seemed particularly distracted.

Their attic studio was the perfect place for them to work, large enough so they could each have their own space with a giant window overlooking the busy streets below, both letting in plenty of light and allowing them a place to find inspiration. Sasori's side of the studio was covered in canvases, dust sheets, paints, brushes and his eerily life-like models that he did most of his work from. Deidara's was covered in abandoned sculptures, half-finished sculptures, his current projects and bags of clay. Tobi had his own little space near the door but as he was mostly an assisstant he helped out with their jobs rather than have many of his own on the go.

Deidara was looking out of the window, resting one arm against the frame, sighing slightly and looking troubled. Sasori reckoned he knew why as well, putting down his pallette, pausing to wipe his hands, he walked over to the window beside his best friend.

"Do you know what you want your next project to be?"

"I know what I want it to be, yeah, but it won't come to anything."

"A sculpture of someone perhaps?"

Deidara wrinkled his nose slightly, he never felt confident in his ability to sculpt people.

"You know how I feel about sculptures of people, yeah, they lose something, like it's only half of them, yeah."

"Perhaps you just need the right ... model?"

Deidara glanced at him, Sasori just smiled angelically and walked back to his portrait of the woman he'd had the pleasure of meeting in the bar last night; she was tough, cynical with a spark in her eyes that demanded he paint her. Now if only he could get the hair right, she had a piece right over face if he remembered and it was dyed bright red...

Deidara rubbed the bridge of his nose, he would give his eye-teeth to have Sakura model for him. She was gorgeous, not a traditional beauty but one that made you sit up and take notice, but she didn't flaunt it, didn't even seem to realise it. He found her desperately attractive, she wasn't interested in how famous he was or how much money he had, she seemed to genuinely like him for who he was. To Deidara, who had never had anyone to depend on until he had met Itachi and Sasori, someone as genuine as she was, was a precious thing.

What would she see in him though? He was reckless, sometimes irresponsible and apparantly hard to live with. He had plenty of money but somehow he just knew she wasn't going to be interested in that. Plus, according to Itachi she had exactly the right sort of mind that made a hot-shot lawyer, she was so out of his league.

Sasori glanced over at his partner again, perhaps he should tell Itachi that Deidara had it bad for his receptionist, but Itachi always preferred the straight approach and that might scare her off. He just hoped Deidara wouldn't blow any chance he got, that Sakura certainly was something...

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x

R/R!


	3. Chapter 3

This chapter is a bit long, but it moves everything along quite nicely. R/R!

xxx

Sakura usually worked Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, all day Friday with Wednesdays and weekends off. Itachi had been very accommodating in arranging her work around her classes while still giving her enough time to study and have a social life. For this she was seriously grateful, it made everything so much easier.

She bounced into work, always ten minutes early, on Monday afternoon, hanging up her coat and booting up her computer. She approached the door but she could hear Itachi speaking with someone and she chose not to interrupt. The strange thing about it was that he was speaking in what she and Kisame had dubbed his 'Dangerous Voice' usually only employed in the courtroom when a defendant was wasting his time. Pulling up her schedule for the morning she saw that Itachi's last client was at eleven that morning and surely wouldn't still be here at one. Supreme efficiency was one of Itachi's calling cards.

Itachi was a great employer and someone she was seriously considering placing into the category of friends, given the Friday night when he'd actually invited her along with him and his friends. Therefore she decided that it was a good idea to avoid him when he was using that voice, it wasn't worth jeopardising their good working relationship. Usually she would whistle or play some music when working but instead chose to remain quiet, partly to eavesdrop and partly to avoid irritating Itachi any further.

It wasn't long before the door slammed open, the client trying to get some last words in.

"You'll regret this Uchiha! This firm won't last long with you working here!"

"Your case is unwinnable, infact you are a fool for even attempting to build up such a ridiculous notion into a case. Get out of my office"

The man in question, short, fat with a receding hairline, seemed to puff up even further and turned to storm out. His mood was not in any way improved with Sakura staring at him in complete shock and disbelief. He bared his teeth at her as he swept from the room.

Sakura, thoroughly startled turned to Itachi who was standing in the doorway glaring at the man's retreating back. The Uchiha glanced in her direction and sighed a sigh of long sufferance.

"Ignore him Sakura, just a ball of hot air and nothing more. Trying to build a compensation case against Jiraiya-sama for putting his own brand of pornography out of business."

Sakura laughed out loud, the infamous pervert Jiraiya was a childhood friend of Tsunade and she always enjoyed his garrulous boasting before Tsunade was forced to knock sense into him. The idea of someone claiming because someone's books were more popular than theirs almost beggared belief. She was also more than pleased to note that Itachi had dropped the -san from her name, surely a sign that she was considered more than just an employee as he always used honorifics.

Itachi smiled as his receptionist and the girl he was beginning to think of as a friend and apprentice laughed out loud. He could always count on Sakura having the same view as him, he never doubted his own opinions but it was still reassuring to have one of the brightest law students on his side.

"What are my other appointments this afternoon? Supposing that the public's opinion of me is not now irreparably damaged"

Sakura giggled at Itachi's rarely used dry style of humour and drew up the log.

"Maito-san had to cancel his at four so that only leaves Zetsu-san at two."

"Thank you Sakura, could you get me the files from last Tuesday? I think I found a good piece of evidence in them."

"Of course Itachi-san ... would the good piece of evidence be that Pein's doctor had already mentioned the light sedatives in his report but it hadn't been passed onto the defence?"

Itachi smirked, Sasuke was going to have his work cut out if he hoped to be even half as good as his pretty best friend.

"Yes, that good piece of evidence. Excellent work."

Sakura blushed and grinned, she had been half convinced that he was going to tell her off for snooping, and 'excellent' was extravagant praise from the young man. He swept off into his office to sort things out for Zetsu's meeting and she stretched up to reach into the top drawer of the filing cabinet to get the requested file. It was times like this that she hated being so short, she just couldn't quite reach and she wasn't going to have a repeat of the rolling chair incident. She stretched even further in and was almost there when the file was plucked out from over her. Turning round she was confronted by Kisame's giant frame and an equally giant, rather toothy, grin.

"Too little?"

Sakura huffed and grabbed the file, but not being able to keep a smile off her face as Kisame's deep bass laugh reverberated round the room. He followed her into Itachi's office as she handed the file over and slumped down into one of the chairs. Itachi, completely used to his oldest friend dropping in randomly, merely raised an eyebrow.

"Do you ever do any work Kisame? Unless your job has become cluttering up my office?"

"You wound me Itachi, with your cruel words. Anyway I'm just here to invite you and Sakura round to mine tonight; I'll be cooking some of my specialities!"

Sakura watched Itachi as he pretended not to be interested to rile Kisame up. Kisame however was well used to his tricks and decided to get his own back. Turning to Sakura he took her hand, hers dwarfed by his.

"You'll come won't you? Itachi won't know what he's missing! Besides, Sasori and Deidara will love to see you; Friday night was the best laugh I've had in a long time."

"You're an old goat Kisame."

"Has your job become trying to undermine me in front of the lady?"

Sakura was almost laughing out loud as she watched the two old friends bicker with each other. She squeezed Kisame's hand and told him that she would come of course as long as she was wanted. He grinned at her then at Itachi and got up to leave, tossing a casual wave over his shoulder as he did so.

Itachi caught her eye and shook his head. Zetsu had wandered in and taken the seat recently vacated by the businessman. Sakura greeted him and left them to their work, still grinning ecstatically at having been invited round to the house of her favourite of Itachi's friends.

xxx

Sakura couldn't help being slightly nervous as she approached the house, Itachi had given her directions after he realised with rolling eyes that Kisame had forgotten she didn't know where he lived. She wasn't sure how formal the evening was going to be so she'd compromised with a just above-knee length dress that was form-fitting yet demure enough for a semi-formal meal. She'd brought a rather nice and expensive flask of sake, hoping to make a good impression to Kisame, the renowned connoisseur of all things alcoholic. She just hoped they weren't going to get anywhere near as drunk as they had on the Friday, after all, she had class in the morning.

Itachi grumbled slightly under his breath as he had somehow gotten roped into setting the table while Sasori, Deidara and Tobi sat with drinks, not lifting a finger to help. He wasn't so busy as to not notice the way Deidara's head jerked up when there was a knock at the door announcing Sakura's arrival though. Sasori also saw and caught his eye, giving him a knowing smirk. The small exchange was broken when Kisame fussed through to get the door, telling them all to behave now there was a lady present.

Sakura greeted everyone warmly, though still rather shyly, while Kisame investigated the sake she'd brought him. Tobi of course was the most enthusiastic replier to her greetings with merely nods and smiles from the other men. She thought she'd seen Deidara glance her up and down when she came in, but she kept convincing herself that she was imagining things and instead turned to ask Tobi how his new project was getting along.

Deidara was sure she had caught him checking her out when she'd walked in, but he didn't care. She looked stunning tonight and he was going to have to try very hard not to make an absolute fool of himself through the meal. Itachi and Sasori were acting weird too, glancing at each other then at him. He sipped more of his sake, it was amazing what a pretty girl could do to a man's self confidence.

Kisame started happily doling out the food for the meal now that everyone had arrived. As he set a course out he described in great detail the sourcing and preparations.

"That fish comes from the river down by the Red Bridge you know? Oh and Sakura, that sake is one of the finest brands; you'll have to tell me where you found it. And when you're old enough, we'll go to the distillery, how bout that?"

Sakura merely laughed off the slight about her young appearance.

"Yeah, I'd love that Grandpa."

This caused much "Ooooing" from the rest of the table and further jibes about age flying back and forth for the rest of the dinner.

After the meal had been finished, all compliments to the chef made, excluding Deidara who took his back when Kisame had said he looked like a pouty five-year-old, they moved through into the living room to have another couple of drinks and watch a film.

Kisame and Itachi grabbed the sofa and Sasori almost threw himself into the chair, leaving Deidara Sakura and Tobi to sit on the floor. Sakura chose to sit with her back to the bookshelf beside the sofa after pulling a cushion out from under Kisame just as he was about to sit on it. Tobi rushed straight over to Kisame's DVD cabinet to have first choice of the movie.

"Don't choose anything rubbish, yeah?"

Tobi stuck his tongue out at the blonde artist and went back to deciding what to watch. Deidara crossed the room and sat next to Sakura against the bookcase. Something that didn't go unnoticed by Itachi and Sasori, who raised their eyebrows at each other.

Sakura meanwhile was concentrating very hard on speaking to the artist without it all coming out in knots. She was sure her face was getting slowly warmer as Deidara told her the story about the last time Tobi had chosen a movie and they'd all ended up watching a chick-flick.

"I could've sworn that Itachi was teared up at one point though, yeah. Heard him sniffling didn't we Sasori-danna?"

Kisame and Sasori laughed at the glare Itachi was pinning onto Deidara and laughed even harder when Sakura handed the lawyer a tissue, saying just in case. Itachi threatened to fire her, but with no heat behind it.

Sakura was amazed with how well the evening was going; now she really felt part of this group, comfortable enough even to joke around with her boss. Turning she beamed at Deidara who felt the breath catch in his throat. They locked eyes and everything seemed to slow down as they got lost in the moment.

Tobi's strident voice broke the moment between them, Deidara glaring at him and sitting back from where he had been inching forward towards the girl. Sakura had to restrain herself from breathing out heavily, she'd just had a moment with Deidara! It featured in every trashy romance novel she'd ever read and she'd finally felt what it was like. Despite the slightly giddy feeling coming from her stomach she tried to reason that it was just the comfortable atmostphere and the sake he'd been drinking. Deidara was busy trying to get a grip on himself; that had been such an intense feeling.

Coughing slightly they both settled back to watch the film, though neither really noticed nor minded when Deidara's arm seemed to sneak behind her, or when Sakura leaned back into him slightly.

xxx


	4. Chapter 4

I really love this AU and despite chronic writer's block and cartloads of uni work I'm going to try and revive this.

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Naruto shouldered past Sasuke as they entered the internet cafe and slid into the seat, eagerly booting up his emails. Sasuke tch'd and stood behind his friend, looking over his shoulder to see what was happening back home. He didn't get as many messages as the dobe, his coming from his family and occasionally Sakura, probably due to his rather anti-social work ethic. Naruto of course didn't have any family (beyond Iruka) to hear from but he had made so many friends during school his inbox always took half an hour to go through.

Speaking of Sakura, Naruto always opened hers first and generally skipped the first paragraph which always told them both to be careful and not go under any moving vehicles when she wasn't there to look after them. He knew Naruto felt guilty for not inviting her on their trip round the Western World but it was a coming of age, bonding sort of trip for them and having her there would have lessened its impact. Sasuke knew she was at Tokyo-U doing law but she was always a little vague about what else she did. Something that wasn't studying or seeing friends was obviously taking up her time but while she filled her emails with gossip they lacked real substance. Naruto didn't seem to notice and he would only get worried and do something stupid if he mentioned it.

"Ha, look teme! I told you Chouji would go for a barbecue theme! You owe me dinner"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and went to get a snack while Naruto read and answered his messages. Bringing back his croissant and a bar of chocolate for Naruto he was finally allowed to check his own emails. Itachi's correspondence was perfunctory as usual, an update on the firm and a warning to be careful. However he did seem to be in a good mood when composing this as there was a throw-away story about Kisame included. Sasuke always received an email from his father but Fugaku only ever wrote the first few lines before it got taken over by his mother fretting over him being so far away. This email was no different; his father hoped he was enjoying himself and encouraged him to obey all the rules of the countries, no matter how asinine they seemed. Sasuke rolled his eyes, his father's thoughts never seemed to stray far from his policing. He was thankful he was joining his uncle's firm rather than becoming head of the police like his father. His mother filled the rest with gossip about the neighbours and any goings on at the hospital where she worked as one of the head doctors. She and her boss Tsunade, the hospital director, had been friends for years. When Tsunade had taken Sakura in Mikoto had fallen in love with the little girl. She'd been disappointed that Sakura didn't want to pursue medicine but seeing that she and Sasuke were good friends she clung to the idea that she might one day call her a daughter in law.

Sasuke skim-read through his mother's news; scoffing when she mentioned that her eldest son still hadn't managed to find himself a nice girl. Naruto was not the only one who was convinced that Itachi had never developed hormones and was destined to end his life with a lot of cats. However his mother did mention that he had praised his secretary twice in one family dinner so perhaps there was hope for him yet. Sasuke frowned slightly, Itachi hadn't mentioned he had employed a secretary but he supposed his brother was so highly regarded he would need the help. Hopefully when he returned from his trip his brother would employ him instead, it would be a good grounding for his studies.

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Speaking of studies Sakura was extremely busy. She had been in the library since her morning class had finished and intended to stay there until she had to start work. She had a paper due in a week and it was heavily weighted so it had to be excellent. There was almost no one else from her class here as she seemed to be the only one who did any work before the absolute deadline. Re-arranging the periodicals she was using she calculated she had around two hours before she would have to leave for work. She was going to spend the two hours working as well, certainly not thinking about the night where she and Deidara had shared _that_ moment. Honestly, she had thought about it so much there was simply nothing else in it that could be gone over. Deidara was extremely distracting but right now work was much more important.

Two hours later she placed the books onto the re-shelving trolley and left the library, pushing her way through the smokers standing outside. Itachi's office was not too far from the campus but it was already November and the wind was cutting. Hunching her shoulders down and pulling her collar up she walked quickly, not looking up from the pavement. Continuing like this for a couple of minutes she was extremely startled when a car honked its horn very loudly next to her. The car, a rather flashy black convertible, had pulled right up to her. She didn't think she knew anyone who had as nice a car as this except Itachi but he never used his car except for business.

The window rolled down and she was looking into the face of the man she had been thinking about for three days. Deidara grinned as he saw her checking out his car, and how shocked she looked when she saw it was him. He had never considered himself a car guy but he knew the minute he'd set eyes on this baby that he had to have it. At least he wasn't like Kakazu whose garage could make any self-respecting celebrity green with envy. Motioning for her to get into the passenger seat he took a quick glance at himself in the rear-view mirror and reminded himself to play it cool and not come on too strong. For some reason Sasori believed that his forceful personality could intimidate the young woman. He snorted to himself; if she could work for Itachi there was clearly nothing he could do to intimidate her.

"Where you headed, yeah?" Deidara asked when Sakura closed the door behind her, flicking on his indicator to pull back out onto the road.

Sakura smiled as she started to warm up, Deidara hated being cold even more than she did; Sasori was always complaining the heat in the studio made his pieces dry funny.

"Oh I'm just headed to the firm; I've got work this afternoon. If it's out of your way I don't mind walking at all."

Deidara laughed, "It's no trouble Sakura, don't worry. I always knew Itachi was a slave driver, yeah." Itachi had always been the one in the library 'til closing, the one whose work was always perfect, it made sense that he would want someone similar helping him behind the scenes.

Sakura grinned and told him with the way he worked Tobi he couldn't say anything. She hadn't realised how much she had missed him. It seemed really silly as it had only been a couple of days but seeing that grin light up his face made her feel like how all the romance novels described. At least she was wearing something flattering, not the usual baggy jeans and hoodie that was her normal class wear. Even so she could never hope to be as good looking as the women Deidara had flocking around him but she was actually friends with him so that had to count for something.

Deidara was thinking almost the opposite. It was amazing how much better looking she was than most of the women he was acquainted with. He supposed part of it was the fact she was completely genuine in enjoying his company; he'd been burned several times by gold-diggers and glory-hunters. He was even more surprised that she didn't have a boyfriend; obviously all the men at this university were blind and stupid. He'd been eavesdropping, pretending to be fixing a drink when Kisame had been prying information about her love life out of her. She'd just shrugged and said men didn't seem to come to her very often, maybe something to do with the fact she hung out in the library most of the time. Sasori had been listening in on this conversation and gave him a very pointed look over the top of her head. He knew she was busy between uni and work but she did talk about seeing her friends so she must have some spare time. Deidara gripped the steering wheel. He was going to see if he could share some of that free time.

Sakura chatted about a variety of topics really quite pleased that he seemed extremely interested in everything that she had to say. It was a very short journey and to the disappointment of the both they soon pulled into the car park behind the firm. Sakura bent down to gather her bag and books and when she faced him to say thanks for the lift, the intense look on his face took her breath away.

Deidara licked his dry lips, trying to think of a way to ask that wasn't too corny. If the guys could see him now he'd never live it down, his famous charm seemed to vanish when she was around. Sakura could feel her face heating up and her stomach tightening, this was so exciting.

"Sakura ... would you... I mean are you maybe free tomorrow night?" Deidara forced himself to look her in the eyes and hoping against hope that he hadn't sounded stupid.

Sakura could barely hear him over the blood pounding in her ears. Was she hearing him right? The gorgeous, sexy, daredevil artist that she had always thought was going to remain a crush had actually asked if she wanted to do something tomorrow night! She realised her silence was making Deidara look worried and so she let the full force grin she felt cover her face. She almost laughed at the relief that swept over him and the way he reached and took her hand.

"Yeah, I'd love to do something tomorrow" Sakura could hardly get the words out past the huge smile but she desperately tried not to look too eager. Deidara grinned and squeezed her hand, feeling completely elated when he felt her squeeze back.

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Itachi noted how happy his assistant was during the course of the afternoon. She was always bubbly, listening to music and chatting to his clients but today she was on a different level. As soon as he had a break he called her into his office to find out what the good news was.

"Is everything okay Itachi?" Sakura smoothed her skirt down and focussed on her boss.

Itachi looked at her fondly; he wasn't sure how he had managed his huge workload without her efficiency and professionalism. "Yes, everything's fine. You seem extremely happy."

Sakura loved how her boss could turn a statement into a question with just the inflection and a slightly raised eyebrow. If she wanted to be a good lawyer she was going to have to be able to control her blushing. Itachi's eyebrow rose even further, he did not have much experience with young women, much to his mother's chagrin. However _that_ look could only mean something to do with romance, if it wasn't Deidara then the artist was going to be so angry.

"Deidara asked me out to a meal tomorrow night." Sakura looked down at her lap to hide the big smile, trying to look as professional as she could.

Itachi leaned back in his chairs smirking; it was about time his friend made his feelings known. He'd better not mess this up; he was not going to lose the best upcoming mind in the business because of a lover's tiff.

His uncle, Madara, had been keeping an incredibly subtle eye on her performance and listening to the positive reports from his nephew. She only had another year and a half before she would graduate, no doubt with a first-class degree, and both men were seriously considering the possibility of offering her a fulltime position with the firm. The only problem with this plan was Sasuke, who clearly wanted to join as well. Both men knew the youngest Uchiha had always felt in the shadow of his older brother and would not be happy to be second best to his best friend as well. However this could all be decided when Sasuke returned from his trip, after all he wouldn't finish his course until long after she did.

Sakura had brought her eyes back up to his, looking to see whether he approved. He was quite touched that his opinion on something in her personal life mattered so he smiled. His smile grew bigger as he watched her blush harder and twist her notebook in her hands. Deidara was a very lucky man, he would have to text Kisame as soon as she went back to her desk. After all, it was within a week of the dinner, he had money to collect from the large businessman.

R/R


	5. Chapter 5

There is some Hidan in this chapter, and we all know what that means. Standard disclaimers etc, as I forgot them in the last chapter. Enjoy!

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"You've got a _DATE?!_" Sakura winced and held the phone away from her ear as Ino's voice shot up several octaves.

"Yeah, well, you don't have to sound so surprised" Sakura glared at the receiver as if it was her oldest friend. She was lying on her stomach on the bed in her one bed-roomed flat near her campus.

Ino snickered at the tone of her friend's voice and immediately got herself more comfortable so she could pry. "Well then, who is it?"

"You know Iwano Deidara?"

"The artist? Yeah, so?"

Sakura sighed, sometimes Ino could be a little dense, if she waited another couple of seconds the penny was bound to drop.

Ino almost shrieked when she figured out what she thought Sakura was saying. "_THE_ Deidara? The famous artist? The drop dead sexy blond? How on earth did you get him?!"

Sakura felt slightly insulted; yeah she wasn't as beautiful as Ino who could have any man she wanted but there was nothing actually wrong with her. "He's one of my boss' friends, they went to school together."

"Your boss is Sasuke's big brother right?"

"Yeah?"

"Does he have a girlfriend?"

"Ino! I'm asking your advice for _my_ date! You can hit on my boss some other time. Now, we're going to that new Italian place beside that ice cream bar you like, what should I wear?"

Ino snickered, picturing Itachi in one of the new tight black shirts her fashion house was producing. Her boss was always trying to top the other fashion houses by getting celebrities to model her new lines; perhaps she could get Sakura to convince her boss and her new man to strut them down the catwalk. Hearing Sakura complaining about her wardrobe brought her back to the moment; maybe she was getting ahead of herself.

The next hour was spent with Sakura describing articles of clothing over the phone and Ino shooting them all down. Finally, after Sakura thought she was never going to be able to go, they settled on a classic black mini-dress that she had bought on a shopping trip just before she went to uni. She worried that it was maybe a bit too tight and short but Ino had shushed all her complaints and told her that if she didn't get a second date wearing that dress then he was definitely gay. After being told how to wear her hair and what make-up to put on they arranged a time to meet later on and finished the call. He was picking her up a seven for their half-seven reservation so she would have to rush home after work and get ready. Work started early so she forced herself to get into bed and hoped she would be able to sleep despite how nervous and excited she felt.

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Sasori sighed when he walked into the studio the next morning. Deidara was already in and standing by the window looking frazzled. His long hair was sticking up in static from where he'd obviously been running his hands through it. The blond had burst in the afternoon before looking like he'd just won the lottery and talked his ear off about how Sakura had agreed to the date, where they were going and how he was going to rub it in Sasuke's face the next chance he got.

Thanks to Itachi Sakura's pre-teen crush on her handsome classmate was common knowledge amongst them. Especially as Mikoto had strongly encouraged it, going as far as to rope Itachi into helping create romantic scenarios. However Sasuke had outdone himself with his teenage angst and had turned her down forcefully and repeatedly. Due to his insurmountable pride he had not shown any remorse when Sakura grew from an awkward teenager into a very attractive young woman and decided that he wasn't worth her time. Itachi was convinced that Sasuke always assumed she would be there whenever he got his act together and wanted a girlfriend. Deidara and the younger Uchiha had never gotten on and the opportunity to get one over on him was a very welcome bonus to dating Sakura. If anyone was to ask Itachi would state his neutrality but secretly he had always thought his brother needed a good shaking and this was the perfect time.

However Deidara's confidence had evidently waned overnight and he was now looking rather nauseous. Neither of the two artists had a good history with women despite their good looks and healthy bank balance. These qualities meant they had no problem with one-night stands but when it came to something more meaningful they couldn't seem to make it stick. Out of their friend group it was Kisame that had the best luck with women; he'd been in a fulfilling casual relationship for a few years. Itachi just did not seem to be interested in girls; opinion swung wildly between thinking he's gay or has a long-term secret girlfriend. Deidara was targeted by fame-hunters more often as he preferred to present his artworks in person and was an excellent self-promoter. Sasori preferred to work behind the scenes and avoiding the limelight but unfortunately this lent him a mysterious air that seemed to attract the slightly insane. When there was a chance for the relationship to develop the women couldn't handle their fearsome artistic dispositions. Sasori had a cruel streak that could flare up in petty arguments and had more than once left a girl crying. Deidara was well known for his explosive temper when he felt frustrated or uninspired and especially when people tried to tell him what to do. If a girlfriend didn't like the amount of attention he was paying his art and not them and tried to make him change he was easily capable of creating a huge scene.

After watching Tobi fall into a sweet and easy relationship both artists had decided to forget women for the time being and focus more on their work. That had been a few months ago and this was the first date Deidara had planned in that time. Sasori reckoned that Deidara felt slightly unsure around her. There was no doubt that he was not as academic as she was and that he wouldn't have his usual appeal of money. However the main factor was that he seemed to care about Sakura more than he realised and the sub-conscious fear of messing up had turned him into the nervous man currently glaring out of the window and biting his nails. He glanced up and nodded in greeting when Sasori swept in and dumped his bag near his easel but immediately went back to staring outside.

Deidara tried to force himself to quit gnawing on his fingers when Sasori came in and forced himself to at least pull out a piece of clay and work on something. Every time he thought about his date later he could feel his palms getting damp. Sakura had mentioned that she enjoyed western foods such as pasta so he'd picked the place with the best reviews. He only enjoyed using his fame occasionally and the way the staff fell over each other to get him a good reservation was certainly one of those times. The only problem was he still hadn't decided what to wear and unlike his date he couldn't ask his friends for fear of the endless ridicule that would result. He was surprised Kisame hadn't already rolled up to give him advice and mock his nervous state. No doubt before threatening him to treat her properly or else his life would become very unpleasant. Kisame had pretty much adopted Sakura as a little sister and though he would probably approve of Deidara's dating of her he would still like to keep an eye on them.

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"Sakura, do I still have a meeting with Akimichi-san this afternoon?" Itachi sounded rather irritated.

"Yes, 3 o'clock. I'm sure I put it in your diary Itachi." Sakura looked up rather worriedly from her filing; she hadn't been so distracted she'd forgotten had she?

"I'm sure you did however the diary itself has gone missing." She could hear him rifling through the papers on his desk trying to find the missing journal.

Quickly she went to her desk to see if she had left it around in her office. However the search proved fruitless and she could only give Itachi a baffled look when he entered. His diary was not especially confidential but it was certainly an inconvenience to have lost it. Itachi usually kept it in his briefcase which went everywhere with him outside the office. Perhaps he had just left it at home. Sighing he told Sakura he would look for it later and took a minute to check she wasn't too nervous about her date later that night. She looked a bit jumpy but she really had nothing to worry about, it was clear Deidara really thought something of her, after all he hadn't had a date in a few months. Giving her a slight turning up of the lips he walked back into his office, maybe he would let her away early so she could have longer to get ready. He just had to make sure that his mother didn't find out Sakura was going on a date that wasn't with one of her two sons.

Half an hour later Sakura paused her music to listen to the raised voices coming from down the hallway. As they got closer she smiled as she recognised the loudest one, someone fitting that many swear words into such small sentences could only be Hidan. The other, softer and more exasperated voice belonged his best friend Kakazu. The two had met through Kisame and quickly formed one of the strangest friendships Sakura had ever seen. It was similar to Naruto and Sasuke's in that it was love-hate, except unlike her two best friends there seemed to be no love at all. They could barely have a five minute conversation without an argument breaking out and it always seemed as if they were seconds away from physical violence. She didn't know Hidan as well as Itachi's other friends as he travelled around the country a lot, preaching his Jashinist faith. It was easy to tell when he'd visited the office however because all the leaflets in the holder next to her desk were replaced with pamphlets discussing the benefits of his religion. Kakazu rarely had time to visit Itachi's office as he spent almost all of his time improving and publicising his business. Sakura glanced at the clock, only 4 and a half hours to go.

Hidan certainly knew how to make an entrance, even if it was just into the office of his old friend. Slamming the door open he paused dramatically as if taking in the room before giving Sakura a saucy wink and striding over. Sakura laughed as Kakazu rolled his eyes behind the priest's back before nodding a greeting to her. Itachi appeared almost silently from his office, obviously having heard the loud bickering outside.

"Hidan, Kakazu, good to see you. Do you need anything?" Itachi was looking at the clock too, he had a meeting in half an hour and while he welcomed their company his clients were unlikely to.

"We're in town for the fucking weekend yeah? We should head out and get trashed!" Hidan's face lit up at the prospect of getting totally drunk. He restrained himself when he was working as no one would take a drunken priest seriously but now he was home he was going to live it up.

Kakazu rolled his eyes again. He wasn't sure how Hidan had managed to convince him to take the whole weekend off and go bar-hopping. His friend always managed to get himself into either a fight or a hugely embarrassing situation that he needed to be rescued from and it was always him stuck doing the rescuing.

"What about you Sakura? Bet you can't wait to be seen with a fucking stud like me eh?" Sakura giggled as the silver haired man leered playfully in her direction.

"I'm sorry Hidan, I'm busy tonight." Her tone was enough for the priest to work out a man would be taking up her attention. Sakura looked at Hidan's face and burst out laughing at the feigned look of shock and hurt. For a holy man Hidan certainly liked to flirt.

"With who? Whoever they are, I'm better!" Hidan slammed his fist into his hand, causing everyone in the room to roll their eyes at him.

"She's going out for dinner with Deidara Hidan. Although I'm sure you won't say no to coming along with us on Saturday perhaps? I'm sure he won't object to seeing you two nights in a row."

"Unless it's a fucking disaster yeah? Then you'll just have to go out with me instead!"

Sakura grinned as she watched Kakazu barely hold himself back from smacking Hidan on the back of the head. Turning to her boss she nodded. It was so nice to be welcomed by all these famous and successful people while she was just a simple law student. She smiled and waved as Itachi shooed the pair out with promises to meet them later that evening at their favourite bar. It wasn't a moment too soon as Akimichi-san appeared not ten minutes later. After chatting to Chouji's dad for a minute she showed him in and was soon back to filing and worrying about how her date was going to turn out. Only 4 hours to go...

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R/R


	6. Chapter 6

Aha, the date! Does everyone think this is a decent AU? I'm trying to keep everyone as in character as I can manage. I don't own Naruto. Though if Hidan comes up for grabs I'm right here.

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Sakura cursed out loud as she tried to get the back of her dress to zip up. She still had ten minutes before Deidara arrived but that time had to include finding her fabulous black heels that were somewhere in her wardrobe. Getting the zipper as far up as she could manage she huffed and started rooting around in the many pairs of shoes she owned. Finally she pulled out _the_ shoes, the shoes that made her feel on top of the world. Not to mention they made her legs go on forever. Ino may have been the go to girl for clothes but no one knew footwear like Sakura. She was admiring herself in the mirror and making last minute hair adjustments when she was interrupted by the doorbell.

All of a sudden her confidence brought on by the shoes disappeared and she had to force down a huge burst of nervous energy before walking calmly to the front door.

On the other side of the door Deidara was feeling just as jittery. He had been fine on the drive over but for some reason standing in front of her front door he had to thrust his hands into his pockets so she wouldn't see them shaking slightly. He finally chosen a dark blue shirt that contrasted beautifully with his hair – sometimes being an artist had its perks. The wait for Sakura to come to the door seemed to stretch into hours and he could feel his heart hammering against his chest as he heard her footsteps approaching.

When she opened the door Deidara had to clench his jaw at the gorgeous woman standing, looking rather shy, in her doorway. Sakura felt the heat rise up in her face at the intense look on his face as he swept his eyes over her, drinking her in.

"Err ... hi ..." Sakura tried desperately hard not to fidget with the rather high hemline of her dress.

Her voice snapped Deidara back to the moment and he tore his eyes away from her newly revealed curves and managed to look her in the eye. "Hi, you look ... God you look fantastic" he breathed.

Sakura's breath caught at the tone of his voice and she had to force herself to remember to breathe. "Would you like to come in?" She stepped back and gestured into her flat, thanking the heavens she'd remembered to clean the living room up a bit the night before. It was never that messy but she did tend to leave her coursework all over the place. She'd better have remembered to hide her few _Icha Icha_ novels too; they were a very, very private passion and she was determined to keep it that way. The last thing she needed was her love of literary porn to be revealed; she'd never live it down.

Deidara smiled at her in a way that made her slightly weak at the knees and brushed past her (very closely past her) and into the hall. She pointed in the direction of her sitting room, saying that she had to grab a few things before they could go but she'd only be a couple of minutes. Her house was quite small but he supposed that suited a student. The room was quite plain, decorated in neutral tones, but he could see just by looking that the couch was one of her favourite places. It was a big, green leather affair with huge cushions that looked comfy enough to sleep on. Judging by the way her coursework was piled up next to it this was where she spent most of her time. Resisting the urge to sit down, knowing that he was going to have leave in a minute, he went over to investigate her wall of photographs. They covered almost the whole wall above her television in a scatter-collage that immediately appealed to him. There were a few old ones of a very little Sakura with a silver-haired man and red-headed women who were obviously her proud parents, also explaining where she got her unusual colouring from. Itachi's little brother and his blonde best friend featured in many more, they ranged from ones that showed them as children, awkward teenagers (Deidara smirked at how gawky Sasuke had been) to ones taken reasonably recently. Sakura certainly had a plethora of friends who cared about her; in every photo the people were laughing and having fun. However he quickly decided on his favourite, smiling as he saw it. It was one Tobi had taken on their night out the previous week showing Sakura and himself sitting with their heads close together and laughing at a private joke. He also noticed one taken of the whole group drinks in one hand and throwing victory signs with the other, totally plastered. He felt oddly emotional at his inclusion in her life. He and his friends had only known her for just less than a year but they were clearly important to her. Hearing her coming out of her room he shook himself to clear the rush of emotion and turned to get ready to leave.

Willing herself to calm down Sakura had rushed into her room to grab her purse, filling it with all the things she might need during the date. There was a frantic few seconds were she couldn't find her driver's license but eventually she managed to get everything sorted. Grabbing her coat she cursed softly as she remembered her dress wasn't zipped all the way up. Deidara would have to do it. Coming out of her room, making sure to close it behind her so he wouldn't see the mess, she walked into the living room smiling as she saw him looking at her photos. He was slightly relieved to see that she looked as nervous as he felt but his expressions quickly changed from a smile to biting his lip when she turned round and asked him to finish zipping her dress. It was down between her shoulder blades and with her pink hair swept up on top of her head he was getting an un-interrupted view of her neck and shoulders. He only realised he was staring when she looked at him curiously over her shoulder. He swallowed thickly but took the opportunity to slide his hand over her hip to brace her as he pulled the tab up, leaning forward to breathe in the smell of her perfume. Sakura could feel his hand burning through the thin fabric of her dress and tingled all over with awareness as she felt him come closer. Deidara managed to remember that they had a reservation to make and slowly stepped away from her, taking her coat to help her into it. She couldn't help but blush; he was a proper gentleman as he held out his arm to encourage her to make her way to the car.

She suddenly felt very uneasy as everyone's head turned to look at her date as they walked towards the restaurant. The only other time she had felt like this was when she had gone out for meals with Itachi and Sasuke's father, as nearly everyone knew the head of the police force. However this was different, she could feel the admiration directed at Deidara and envy being directed at her. As if sensing the same feeling coming from several women in the vicinity Deidara put his hand on her lower back to guide her through the door and signal without doubt that they were together. Again the wait staff could not get them to their table fast enough, offering them bread rolls and a complementary glass of red wine, in the spirit of the themed place. Soon a very pretty waitress came over, looking a little flustered, as if she'd had to argue with someone to get to serve them. Sakura raised an eyebrow as she looked at the other waitresses who were glaring at their companion; obviously she wasn't too far off the mark. Deidara followed her eye-line and rolled his eyes causing her to smile. The waitress fawned over him as they ordered, offering him all the specials and completely ignoring his date. Sakura just smirked and pointed out what she wanted on the menu so he could order as the girl wasn't going to listen to her. Deidara finally managed to shoo her away to get their food and sighed in exasperation, giving Sakura a worried look, hoping their date wasn't getting off to a bad start.

Sakura felt a rush of fondness for him when he gave her that look, but couldn't stop herself from giggling. "You can't help being so good looking and famous, Deidara."

The man in question gave her a bored look; two could play at that game. "Really? Well surely she can see that I'm eating with someone _even more_ good looking, yeah?"

Sakura blushed heartily and glared playfully at the smug look on his face. She rested her elbows against the edge of the table and leaned forward slightly so it would b easier to talk over the sounds of the patrons. Deidara followed suit and couldn't resist reaching to take her hand in his while he leant his chin on the other. She bit her lip and half smiled as she looked at the fondness easily displayed in his eyes. They talked quietly about Hidan and Kakazu's plans for the weekend. Deidara grumbled that Kakazu always put a damper on a night out by money-watching at the same time as Hidan drank too much and managed to embarrass them.

"You should have seen the guys he picked a fight with, yeah? They were gigantic; if Kisame hadn't turned up we would've got our asses handed to us."

Sakura laughed along as Deidara regaled her with stories of Hidan's escapades when they were younger. It seemed that as a religion Jashinism didn't seem all that bad if one of its head priests could get away with what Hidan got up to. Feeling his thumb rub over her knuckles as he talked Sakura was drawn completely into him. Deidara's voice was nothing but downright sexy and he was an excellent story-teller. She had always loved listening to him since they'd first met when Sakura had come into her second day at work and he was sitting on her desk complaining about Tobi to Itachi. However the moment she had first realised that she was incredibly attracted to the blonde artist was her birthday earlier that year. Kisame, Sasori, Tobi and Deidara had turned up at Itachi's office in the middle of the afternoon with a birthday cake and an assortment of cards for her. They'd had a great break, eating the cake and teasing her over getting old but as they had began to filter out Deidara had given her a little present. She'd been shocked when she'd opened the small box and pulled out a miniature of one of his classic bird sculptures that were his hallmark pieces. He'd actually looked shy when she told him how much she loved it and it made her heart melt at the sight. Since then she had harboured a secret crush on him but had refused to let anyone know because to her it had been a ridiculous fantasy.

She had obviously zoned out because she could feel his him shaking her hand. She couldn't help but smile brightly at the slight pout on his handsome face; he had never liked being ignored.

"What you thinking about, yeah?" Whatever it was she was smiling happily so it could only be a good thing.

"I was thinking about my birthday, and the present you gave me." Sakura watched as he remembered with a grin.

"Yeah I get the best presents! You still like it right?"

"Of course! I love him; he lives on my bed-side table."

The waitress interrupted their conversation with their starters and her fussing over his cutlery managed to distract him from developing an irrational jealousy over a little bird sculpture that may or may not get to see Sakura in bed. He was rather used to female attention but he was starting to get angry when the waitress practically threw Sakura's meal at her before turning her attentions back to him. Thankfully Sakura just smirked at him from across the table. When the woman finally left they picked the thread of the conversation up again.

"Why were you thinking about that, yeah?" Deidara looked up from salad to see her blushing. Quirking a brow at her he gestured with his fork for her to elaborate.

Sakura began picking at her prawn cocktail nervously, "Well, you see, it was erm... "

Deidara reached for her hand again and gave it a light squeeze in support, there was nothing for her to be embarrassed about.

"It was when I first started to like you" Sakura blurted out in a rush before immediately jamming her fork forcefully into her starter and shoving a rather large piece of prawn into her mouth.

Deidara's eyebrows rose almost into his hairline but he couldn't help a grin of pure masculine satisfaction. Sakura refused to meet his eyes in a way he found helplessly endearing and the knowledge that his attraction was not one-sided was the best feeling he'd had in a long time. He could remember the exact moment he'd noticed what an attractive woman she was and how after that she had never been far from his mind. However just like his date he had never had the courage to make a move; mostly because he was convinced that his bad luck with women would ruin anything they could have. Over the time she'd worked for Itachi they had gotten to know each other quite well and on their night out he'd made up his mind that he would regret it if he didn't see if there was a chance they could make a relationship work. He had planned on being a bit more romantic than just blurting it out in his car but it had the desired effect.

"So come on then" Sakura had found her voice again, seeing as he hadn't made fun of her. "Tell me something about 'the _amaaaaazing_ artist I don't already know."

Deidara glared at her use of the waitress' description of him, complete with breathy tone but decided to return the favour of revealing when he became interested in her.

"It was that time when we had come to the office and Jiraiya-sama was there dropping off something from Tsunade. I was just coming in the door and you were laughing so hard you were crying, yeah. I dunno, something about that just made me want to be able to make you laugh like that." He shrugged self-consciously but smirked at the extremely touched look she was wearing and the way she laced her fingers through his. Sakura had always thought that descriptions like your stomach doing flips was just a poetic cliché but she had to admit, listening to Deidara being so sweet, it was exactly how it felt.

Their main course was thankfully brought out by a male server; obviously the restaurant was sick of its staff embarrassing themselves and their customers. He was extremely polite and even apologised to Sakura for how she'd been treated and complemented the pair on the sweet couple they made. When he saw how happy this comment made Sakura, Deidara decided that the man was going to get an excellent tip. They even got to do the sickeningly sweet practice of feeding each other parts of their meal as they had ordered two completely different dishes. Apart from the company of course, Sakura's favourite part of the meal was always going to be the dessert. She didn't even care that Deidara smirked as he watched her almost drool as she read over the sweet menu. Deidara's smirk soon turned into a rather different expression as he watched her suck soft vanilla ice cream off her spoon before running her tongue over her lips to catch any stray flavour. His own dessert lay almost completely forgotten, it didn't really matter anyway, Itachi was the one with the sweet tooth. However if she offered him some ice cream he sure as hell wasn't going to be content to take it off the spoon. Especially when she looked at him with those heavy-lidded eyes and asked why he hadn't touched his sweet.

His mind kept playing the image of her lips as she ate during the ride home, even when she was talking animatedly at him from the passenger seat. He was thankful that he could not park right outside her flat as this gave him the perfect opportunity to walk her home at once showing his caring, gentlemanly manners and stopping anyone else from thinking that the gorgeous woman in her skin-tight dress was even slightly available. She shivered slightly as they left his warm car, and Deidara, ever the opportunist held his loose coat open so she could stay close and he could wrap his arm around her. Sakura was getting more and more anxious as they approached her front door, only slightly offset by how safe she felt being with the man. She had never been on a proper 'date' date like this and she wasn't sure how to appropriately end it. In movies and tv shows it always went one of two ways, either a goodnight kiss where she would be left breathless and eager to see him again or he would come in for 'coffee'. However despite the ideas that _Icha Icha _left in her head she was not going to come on that strong. The last thing she wanted was for him to think bad of her, or that she was just attracted to his body or something like that. She didn't realise she'd been off in her thoughts because very soon they were standing outside the door to her flat.

She reached into her purse for her keys and was slightly relieved when she turned to meet his eyes that he looked slightly unsure as well.

"Thank you ... for an amazing night Deidara ... " Sakura couldn't help but wet her lips as he moved closer so that he seemed to tower over her.

"I'm seeing you tomorrow night, yeah?" Sakura nodded frantically, willing her knees to hold up under the weight of that husky voice.

He grinned for a fraction of a second but the next he had pressed his lips to hers. Sakura's knees were going to give at any minute and he seemed to sense that as he pushed her up against the door, running his hand into her hair so he could turn her face and slant his mouth possessively over hers. Sakura had been kissed before but this was beyond anything she could have imagined, he was firm and passionate moving his lips over hers with such skill as to make her moan and fist her hands in his shirt. Deidara was feeling light headed at finally getting to be this close to her. He moulded his body further against hers, relishing in the feeling of her curves pressed against him. Her breathy noises were wrecking his self-control and he finally had to pull away with gentler kisses to make sure he didn't force his way into her apartment and take her on the sofa. Looking down at her and rubbing his thumb over her cheek he wondered how he was managing this self-control when she looked at him with such hazy and aroused eyes. However he leaned in and brushed his lips over hers gently before stepping away and taking her hand. She smiled weakly at him and asked if he would pick her up before they went out and he quickly agreed. Squeezing her hand one last time and pressing a kiss to her knuckles he waited for her to get inside and lock the door before he left for his car on legs that felt like jelly.

On the other side of the door Sakura leant heavily against the wall and touched her hand to her swollen lips. He was one hell of a good kisser. She had to phone Ino in the morning and fill her in all the details. She went almost straight to bed, only pausing for a glass of water and to look at the ridiculously aroused she looked before getting changed and getting to sleep with a massive smile on her face. Had she stayed up to check her emails however she would have found out from Naruto they had their return tickets booked for the beginning of the next year and would definitely be back for her birthday.

&&&

R/R


End file.
